White camellias
by mkh2
Summary: At the end of the HakuZabusa arc where Sasuke dies, Naruto takes the time to reflect. A sad friendship that never happened...


White camellias

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a Naruto fanfiction

by

mkh2

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:rubbing a ramen cup: Wish I had Naruto-gumi, Wish I had Naruto-gumi… :blink eyes: what, it worked with the watermelon…. Never hurts to try. :dances around: Wish I had a watermelon, wish I had a watermelon… :watermelon appears: Yay!

Tippy: Needless to say, Naruto doesn't belong to my sister or myself, thank for asking. It belongs to this guy whose name my sister can't remember right now because she's my sister but will probably remember in a month or three.

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All words of Japanese origin used in this piece are listed at the bottom and explained to the best of my abilities. 

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" " – indicates speech

' ' – indicates thought

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            He crouched down by the foot of the new graves. Each were small, tiny, as each body had first been incinerated on a funeral pyre and the placed in a separate urn. During the process he had been on the verge of saying that Haku and Zabusa's ashes should be placed in the same urn, so that they could finally be together, but he had quickly lost his nerve.

            They all died cruel, needless death.

            No, he didn't really blame Haku or Zabusa for what they had done. Each had fought fiercely to protect their dreams – he really _did_ understand – Haku to protect Zabusa's dream and to stay by his side; Zabusa to exact revenge on the country that had disowned him.

            _He_ would've understood.

            Of course, _his_ understanding came from his own dream of revenge.

            Sasuke, you _jerk_.

            ~ _"I hated you."_ ~

            ~ _'I hated you, too.'_ ~

            He had remarked to Haku that, under different circumstances, they might've been friends.

            He regretted that.

            He also regretted that the same could've been said for Sasuke and himself. They may have seemed so different, he loud and flamboyant, Sasuke quiet and cool. Still, they were alike, both loners, even if on Sasuke's part it was self-imposed, both were orphans, both lacking real love, real kinship, real comraderia. And then they had been jumbled in a little heap together along with Sakura, this very median, very _regular_ sort of girl and an eccentric leader – Kakashi – the extreme of extremes… and somehow they all balanced out. Actually, even without the others, Sasuke and he had balanced out perfectly. The light chasing the dark, the Sun loving the Moon, rain on a summer's afternoon.

            It fit.

            They might've been friends, but it was too late now to tell.

            "Sasuke, you _jerk_."

            Haku had, in a way, fulfilled his dream – he died completing it to the best of his abilities. Zabusa, too, had had a revenge of sorts, however small, though he ended up exacting it on someone he hadn't originally expected to.

            Sasuke… he, too, had his dream… but he wasn't alive to carry it out now.

            That didn't mean it had to fail though.

            True, Naruto couldn't carry on Sasuke's bloodline… hm… didn't Kakashi also possess the Sharingan? Maybe he…

            Nah. That's just not right.

            However, one thing was for certain: Naruto could carry out the revenge.

            Destroy the last Uchiha.

            Naruto was supposed to kill Haku.

            Sasuke was supposed to kill his brother.

            Things don't always turn out as planned.

            "Sasuke, you jerk."

            Naturally Naruto wanted to protect his precious persons. How Sasuke ended up as one of them he was still confused over. Still, in protecting his precious persons it also meant protecting their precious dreams.

            Sasuke could no longer fulfill his dream so Naruto would.

            He would be acknowledged. He would be Hokage. He would destroy Sasuke's brother.

            He'd protect his persons.

            "Sasuke, you jerk."

            He ground the heel of his hand into his eyes and wondered at how it cam away wet.

            "Just had to save my butt, didn't you? Always showing off, eh?"

            He stood up resolutely and nodded at the grave.

            "Well, you'll see, I'll show you I'm bet… I'm better 'n you. I'll bring you the head of your brother and you'll have to acknowledge me… someday."

            He turned to leave when a thought came to a glint of white and yellow caught his eye. He turned to the base of the tree and stared at the colors gathered at its foot. Sakura had already laid some flowers on the graves so it wasn't really necessary but still… He knelt amongst the flowers.

            Getting back to his feet he once again crouched by the graves.

            "Here, a marigold for all of us. And for Sasuke, also a magnolia, it's light pink but it's all I could find, and also a violet, one for you and one for me," Naruto put them down on the graves and tucked his two flowers into his button hole. "And a whole bouquet besides." He now showered the grave with violets.

            Turning to other graves he whispered, "and a gardenia for you two."

            Standing once more, he recalled something and pulled out of his jacket the bit of white that had caught his eyes earlier – a camellia – and placed it on Sasuke's grave before turning to walk away.

            "I'll be back when I've held my end of the bargain," he called over his shoulder to Sasuke's grave.

            And for each step he took he gradually shredded away at the lone buttercup.

~Owari~

Hope you like… I had written this a little after the first time I had read the scanlation where Sasuke "died" and then Haku and Zabusa died… I was half-crazed from half-sobbing and eating one too many Cheetos and cookies and too much chocolate… Eh… never mind.

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Edit note: Look, I KNOW he didn't die, why do you think I put "died" in quotation marks – this is a sort of "what if" fic. For goodness sake, I've read up to chapter 201 of volume 23 – I read it at the site I listed on my profile. Now please don't talk about something so ridiculous again. My sister Tippy is laughing at me because she says I portrayed myself as an idiot (of course, then when she saw my earlier note she said that maybe people just don't pay attention) and a bunch of other stuff put me in a bad mood. …And Tippy doesn't even read Naruto or any other manga! Gah!

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For anyone who is wondering, the thing that Naruto had regretted ("He regretted that.") was the fact that he and Haku couldn't have become friends.

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On the flowers:

Marigolds – technically not in Japan (last I checked); means dreams, fate and protection… appropriate, ne?

Magnolia –a dignity, determination

Violets – virtue and fidelity; it also happens to be an edible flower

Gardenia – hospitality, grace and secret love 

Camellias – in Japan, symbolize friendship, and for the ancient samurai, _death_, but in America the different colors mean different things: white is perfection, red signifies passion, and pink is adoration

Buttercup – self-centered immaturity of childhood


End file.
